Accordion reed block construction



April 12, 1938. o. SCHMIDT 2,113,564

ACCORDION REED BLOCK CONSTRUCTION Filed Aug. 15, 1936 KM I I I lllll! a Z ii J5 2 as 24% Q2 5 Patented Apr. 12, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ACCORDION REED BLOCK CONSTRUCTION Application August 13, 1936, Serial No. 95,769

3 Claims.

This invention relates to accordion construction, and one object of the invention is to secure a particularly compact arrangement of the reeds. vAnother object is to provide a construction tend- 5 ing to produce a relatively large volume of sound in proportion to its dimensions. The invention consists in certain features and elements of construction, as herein shown and described and as indicated by the claims.

l In the drawing:

Figure l is a face view of the valve chamber with the piano-type keyboard projecting therefrom, a considerable portion of the instrument being broken away to condense the View.

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken substantially as indicated at line 2-2 on Figure 1 to indicate the relation of the reed blocks and reed chambers to each other and to the remainder of the mechanism.

20 Figure 3 is a rear view of the valve chest wall which is seen in Figure 1; Figure 3 shows the reed blocks as assembled against the rear face of said wall; this view is also condensed by breaking out a considerable portion of the structure.

Figure 1 shows certain conventional features of piano accordion construction including the manual keys, I, valves, 2, and connecting arms,

3, each extending from one of the keys to one of said valves. The valves control ports, 4, in the 30 wall, 5, and, as illustrated, each valve controls a second port, 6, for a purpose hereinafter explained. As indicated in dotted lines in Figure 2, the valves, 2, and. connecting arms 3, are normally enclosed under a removable cover, I.

The ported wall, 5, which forms one side of the valve chest, also constitutes one wall of the reed chest, the reed blocks being secured against the side of the wall opposite that upon which the valves, 2, are disposed. As seen in Figure 2, each 40 reed block consists of a ported base, 8, with substantially parallel walls, 9 and I0, extending at sharply acute angles from the base, 8. The space between the walls, 9 and I0, is sub-divided at intervals by partitions, 9 The wall, 9, which 45 thus lies nearer the plane of the wall, 5, is closed,

but the wall, I0, is composed of the usual metallic plates each carrying a pair of reeds, II, one of which is adapted to be sounded by suction and the other by pressure. In accordance with 50 the usual practice, most of the reeds have leather flap valves, l2, associated with them. As seen in Figure 2, the bases, 8, of adjacent reed blocks, are assembled close together so that the acutely sloping sides, 9 and I0, of one reed block overlap 55 those of the next to some extent. Owing to the inclination of these sides, the reed blocks do not project nearly so far from the ported wall, 5, of the Wind chest as in the standard construction in which the reeds are disposed in planes nearly at right angles to such wall; and owing to the overlapping arrangement of the inclined portions of the reed blocks, they occupy scarcely any more space in the width of the wind chest than if they were of the standard construction extending directly away from the wall, I. As indicated in the condensed view in Figure 3, each of the reed blocks tapers considerably in width from one end to the other, but the bases are formed with substantially parallel edges, so that they are conveniently assembled in the wind chest. One end of each base, 6, is engaged under the marginal portion of a plate, I3, at one end of the wind chest, and the opposite end is removably fastened by a pivoted lug, I4. In the particular structure illustrated, the side wall or flange of the wind chest consists of a portion, I5, which is somewhat deeper than the opposite side, I6, so that the end walls, I1, are tapered, but it will be evident that whether these flanges are of uniform height or of difiering heights, as shown, they will be considerably lower than in the standard type of construction in which the reed blocks are not arranged in the overlapping relation herein shown.

It is also found that with the arrangement illustrated, in which the closed side wall, 9, of the reed block is the wall nearer the plane of the base, and the reeds, I I, are disposed obliquely overhanging their ports, I8, the fact that the reeds are thus positioned opposite the ports and across the path of air flow through said ports, serves to increase the volume of sound obtainable from the reeds with a given bellows pressure,probably because of the more direct action of the air upon the reeds as compared with standard constructions in which the side walls of the reed chamber are approximately parallel to the axis of the port.

Ordinarily, the purpose of arranging two ports,

4 and 6, for control by a single valve, is to secure the sounding of two reeds simultaneously when the corresponding key, I, is depressed, and in most instances the two reeds will be tuned an octave apart in order to give body and character to the tone. With the arrangement indicated in Figure 2, each reed block carries one set of reeds (dupli bated for operation by suction and pressure). With the valves, 2, arranged in two rows, this results in four reed blocks mounted in parallel overlapping relation; the two inner reed blocks are shown equipped with slides or shutter valves, IQ, for shutting off the ports, 6, at will, so that single tones instead of octaves will be sounded when the corresponding valves are opened. These slides, l9, may be shifted by the performer at will by any standard shift mechanism, not shown.

While there is shown and described herein certain specific structure embodying the invention, it will be manifest to those skilled in the art that various modifications and rearrangements of the parts may be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention, and that the same is not limited to the particular form herein shown and described, except in so far as indicated by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In an accordion, a wind chest having a ported wall, manually operable valves controlling its ports and a plurality of reed blocks mounted against one side of the wall, said blocks having bases with ports registering with the ports of the wall and sides extending at sharply acute angles from the bases and spaced apart to form reed chambers, said sides extending in substantially parallel planes so that the sides of one block overlap those of the next block with clearance between them, each reed block having one closed side wall and reeds mounted in the opposite side, the closed walls alternating with the reeds in the assembly of reed blocks on the ported wall.

2. In an accordion, a wind-chest having a wall with ports arranged in parallel rows, a series of parallel walls all extending from one side of the ported wall at sharply acute and substantially equal angles thereto and disposed in pairs, the two walls of each pair being connected with the ported wall at opposite sides of a row of its ports, one wall of each pair being closed and the other wall having reeds mounted therein, and the outer edges of each pair being connected together to form reed chambers, the closed walls of the series alternating with the reed-supporting walls.

3. In an accordion, a wind-chest having a wall with ports arranged in parallel rows, a series of parallel walls all extending from one side of the ported wall at sharply acute and substantially equal angles thereto and disposed in pairs, the two Walls of each pair being connected with the ported wall at opposite sides of a row of its ports, one wall of each pair being closed and the other wall having reeds mounted therein, and the outer edges of each pair being connected together to form reed chambers, and each reed-supporting wall extencling obliquely over the ports which serve its needs.

OTTO SCHMIDT. 

